All the Right Signs
by JayBea
Summary: Kurohashi Itsuo finds himself awake during the dark hour and manages to change everything subtly...  AU, OC: slight MC  Minato /Yukari and Akihiko/Mitsuru


**Introduction:**

It was late. Kurohashi Itsuo knew that much. His phone was buzzing with messages, though it was nearly midnight, and he didn't feel like answering them. His sister would just have to wait.

He might wonder why she was awake at gone eleven, since it was Thursday tomorrow; school; but he didn't bother to question this. Chiaki was her own girl now; that was why she lived with her Aunt and not their mother. That, and Chiaki was considered the strong one of the family. Itsuo was too much like his father to ever amount to anything, or so his treacherous extended family had said.

But it was too late to think about his shortcomings. Itsuo had plenty of things to back him up; inept courage, okay endurance and a good level of confidence, but he had the charm of a brick and skill with language to match.

_Cha~ La~ _his phone chimed clumsily. Itsuo sighed, rolling over and snatching it from the bedside, mumbling to himself.

"What do you want now, Chiaki?" he asked the device, fumbling with the confusing buttons on the touch-screen, "You'll wake Mom..."

Itsuo's mother, Kurohashi Aiko was far from abusive. She was a kindly, if slightly eccentric woman who'd never gotten over her husband's death. She tried (and failed, due to lack of confidence) to defend her son and praised him and her daughter on every little thing they did, but it didn't stop her from moping around aimlessly, looking half dead most of the time.

_How r u Nii-Chan? Sooo bored lol i mis u! _The small screen read. Itsuo read the little message and then read it again, scowling. He couldn't stand text-talk and Chiaki knew it. Itsuo's clumsy fingers stabbed at the screen, but nothing happened. Nothing moved. Itsuo frowned at the slim hand-held, tapping it again.

_Has it frozen? _He wondered, flipping it over and tugging off the back casing. He ripped out the battery and reinserted it, though as he tried desperately to reattach the back, he noticed that the phone's screen was still on. _That's not right... it should've turned off..._ he glanced at the clock. It said that it was twelve, without question. He checked his digital clock and it said the same, the little red numbers glowing in the dark. He was sure that his phone had said 11: 59 when he picked it up and tried to reply to his sister, but it might've said "6" or even "8"; he'd not really paid much attention.

"What's so special about twelve?" Itsuo asked himself, knocking a nail against the little digital clock. He sat there, staring at it, for a while before deciding that all the clocks in his room must've stopped. However strange that they'd all stopped in the same room at the same time, it was the only logical explanation, so Itsuo stood to go and find the correct time.

However, slipping out into the dark hall seemed ominous; so much so that he was scared to leave the comforting half-light of his room, bathed in the gentle light of the... he suddenly froze. _That was not the moon_. He backed away from his bed, dropping his phone onto the duvet and staring at the large, freaky _thing_ outside of his window.

"Mom," Itsuo cried. He didn't care if she was mad at him for waking her up at this time. He needed her reassurance right now. But no reply returned; no angry yell, sleepy groan or even snore of defiance. It was possible that she just didn't hear him, but Aiko was a light sleeper. She woke up if Itsuo ever got up in the night and called out to him, forever checking if he was alright, but if he specifically called for her she'd be up like a flash, sometimes in an awful bad mood, but he could handle that. It was a price he was willing to pay for peace of mind.

"Mom, I... I had a nightmare. Can you get me some water? I... I feel really sick," he repeated. He wasn't lying for the most part. This felt like an awful nightmare, but the painful thumping of his head indicated otherwise and he did feel sick; his head was spinning and he felt about ready to throw up, but his mother still didn't reply. Itsuo's cry was absorbed into the darkness.

So, despite his brand-new Nyctophobia, Itsuo slipped out of his room and into the unbearably dark hall, unable to see the homicidal shadows he was sure were creeping up behind him. Taking a deep breath, he strode to beside the staircase and flicked the hall's light switch.

"Come on! For God's sake!" he kicked the wall in frustration as the light didn't work, not even a flicker escaping from the bulb that had worked less than two hours ago. Despite his loud anger, Itsuo's mother still made no noise. The silence from her room was terrifying as he clicked the handle with a hand and freed the door. "Mom...?" He asked tentatively. And then he screamed. What was that thing standing sentinel on his mother's bed? It was large and coffin-like, but there was no way it could've gotten into the house. Itsuo hadn't even gotten any sleep yet!

Shaking with fear and anger, Itsuo raced down the stairs, running to the door and shrugging on his jacket. Hell if he was staying in this demon house. He paused before running out into the crisp night; not because he was second-guessing his idea, but because he was wondering whether to take a weapon with him. In the darkness of the icy night thugs thrived... and there was a pair of Gardening Sheers that would work a treat against potential criminals.

_Yeah, right. Like I'm not going to get arrested for wondering around town at gone midnight with a pair of Gardening Sheers, _he thought. He didn't fancy getting in trouble with any police officers, so he simply marched out into the dark. The Full Moon high above the city glittered green with malice, the city itself disturbingly silent apart from the distant cries of what could only be fighting. Fighting that Itsuo would have to avoid if he valued his life.

Winding down the dark streets, Itsuo found the world he supposedly lived in getting more and more horrifying; all living people apart from himself seemed to have turned into coffin-pillars, tall and menacing, and there was always the disturbing feeling of being watched.

As he slipped down toward his high school, Gekkoukan, something made a noise behind him. Whipping round, Itsuo saw a horrible, small little thing; indescribable other than terrifying and utterly disgusting.

"Stay the hell away from me!" he screamed, racing down and sliding through the bars in the gate to his school, so scared that he hadn't noticed the monstrosity it had become. "Just leave me alone!" he yelled as a gunshot fired in the distance...

**(A/N: So there's the first "Chapter" of my first fanfic! Please R&R, don't flame and remember that Shin Megami Tensei and Persona don't belong to me. Thank you!)**


End file.
